They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity – but as The Daily Mail and Ed Miliband spat rumbles on they may want to add that one to the long list of areas where the two parties diverge. While most people – who have at least a couple of brain cells to rub together – realise that the DM has always been a bigoted, nasty little rag they could always count on a fair number of clueless, apolitical types who bought it in order to score a Jamie Oliver meal-deal or look at pictures of Pippa Middleton‘s bum. You know – people who would vote for David Cameron because they think his hair looks nice or that Nigel Farage seems like a good bloke. But it looks like their clumsy and patronising attempt to present a quick ‘evils-of-Marxism-for-dummies’ primer for their readers (for want of a better term) and at the same time tarnishing Red Ed’s image has seriously backfired on them. While the actions of the DM appear staggeringly misjudged and their reputation goes into freefall Ed’s image on the other hand has been launched into the stratosphere. He’s appeared calm, dignified, statesman-like and – most importantly – loyal to his old dad… what’s not to like? And following on from his energy-price-freeze coup he’s been a publicist’s wet dream this past fortnight grabbing the spotlight from Cameron and making him look even more like the Pilsbury Doh! Boy. So well done DM – and if you want to get something out of Ed Miliband just invoice his PR department – I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to cough up!